This article investigates preschool teachers' professionalism and professional strategies in relation to narratives about learning in preschool. These are expressed through the teachers' talk about documentation. A policy on increased systematic documentation in preschools has been introduced in Sweden. Preschool teachers were interviewed about…

The aim of this paper was to analyse how teachers and government may differ in their views regarding the qualities required to be an effective middle manager with responsibility for Physical Education (PE). Lines of inquiry were based upon the practices associated with a performative work culture and how this has affected teacher language. There…

Fundraising and collecting fees are ubiquitous in Ontario, Canada's public schools. Critics assert that these practices perpetuate and exacerbate inequities between schools and communities. In this article we present findings from a critical policy analysis of an advocacy group's efforts to change Ontario's fees and fundraising policies over the…

This study used a dynamic approach to explore bidirectional sequential relations between the real-time language use of teachers and students in naturalistic early elementary science lessons. It also compared experienced teachers (n = 22) with novice teachers (n = 8) with respect to such relations. Verbal interactions were transcribed and coded at…

We conduct a critical discourse analysis of the extent to which Sustainable Development Goal 4, "to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all and promote lifelong learning," promotes a utilitarian and/or transformative approach to education. Our findings show that despite transformative language used throughout the Agenda,…

Children represent their efforts to make sense of their social worlds in various ways. Having, making and being friends are common foci of children's interactions and identity development. These efforts may become visible through analysing video-recorded snippets of children's play. In particular, repeated viewing of episodes of children's…

This paper discursively analyzes the public conversation around immigration as it intrasects with state and federal policy, particularly in relation to higher education. I take in-state resident tuition policy as a departure point for an effort to explain how "undocumented" and "illegal" subject positions are produced through…

This paper analyzes dialogues between insurance sales agents and their clients in transformational rural China from the perspective of interactive frames, footings and discourse identities. Through the analysis of three types of talk, namely, friendship talk, institutional talk and task-oriented talk, the ambiguous and conflicting identities that…

In this paper we explore the various spaces and sites through which the figure of the parent is summoned to inhabit and perform market norms and practices in the field of education in England. Since the late 1970s successive governments have called on parents to enact certain duties and obligations in relation to the state. These duties include…

The sociolinguistic repertoires of individuals in Sudan are products of institutionalised orders of normalisation. The visibility of language in popular and official discourses in Sudan is always linked with wider cultural and political projects. This paper intends to engage with and explicate this observation by, first, examining how the dominant…

Focusing specifically on the negotiation of commonality, this study explores rapport building (Spencer-Oatey, 2000) in online intercultural text chat, where Australian students of Italian interact with L1 Italian speakers. Although the initial purpose of the examined chat exchanges is to facilitate L2 acquisition, analysis of transcripts indicates…

Despite the emphasis laid on demonstrating English language proficiency by Non-Native English Speaking Teachers (NNESTs), research has shown that for various reasons English language teachers graduating from a state-owned university in an Arab country for the past 25 years or so have been found lacking communication skills due to reasons pertinent…

In this article, we examine the ways in which an ESL instructor constructs contextually relevant meanings through the synchronization of speech and gesture during unplanned vocabulary explanations. Video recorded data are analysed, with focus on an in-class homework review in which students demonstrated difficulty in comprehending several key…

This study investigates how the use of discourse markers reflects speaking fluency in Chinese learners. In this study, 220 min of online Chinese courses were transcribed, with 17 Chinese learners and 5 native Chinese teachers as participants. Half of the transcribed data were drawn from students living in Taipei, Taiwan, a Chinese-speaking…

Educational reforms are often translated in and implemented through artifacts. Although research has frequently treated artifacts as merely functional, more recent work acknowledges the complex relationship between material artifacts and human/organizational behavior. This article aims at disentangling this relationship in order to deepen our…